


Being the Bad Guy

by Lex_Munro



Series: Stories From the Fateverse [23]
Category: Dark Avengers (Comic), Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Sci-fi, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Crossover, Gen, Moriarty is a wacko and his shrink finds that funny, crazy people
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-04
Updated: 2012-07-04
Packaged: 2017-11-09 04:44:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/451432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lex_Munro/pseuds/Lex_Munro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karla is a Senior Proctor who deals with subjects her colleagues consider...morally repugnant.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Being the Bad Guy

**Author's Note:**

> so i accidentally wrote Jim Moriarty into the Fateverse.
> 
> if you haven’t watched any of Sherlock (the BBC show), all you need to know is that it’s the Sherlock Holmes stories set in modern-day London instead of Victorian London, and Jim Moriarty is as crafty as Doyle’s version while also being completely off his damn rocker.
> 
> so, here’s a version of him that works as a field agent for the Network, as seen through the eyes of his Proctor, the Core’s native version of Karla (Moonstone).
> 
>  **warnings:**   AU - Fateverse.  sci-fi.  BBC Sherlock crossover.  crazy people.  language: g.
> 
>  **pairing:**   none/gen.
> 
>  **timeline:**   NO 3652.
> 
>  **disclaimer:**   marvel owns all the characters, i just made more alternate universe versions of them.
> 
>  **notes:**   1)  has actually written up a pretty extensive treatise about the FSED and all its associated ethical profile descriptors.  i'm thinking of asking her to post it somewhere, even if it's only interesting to people like me.  2) that is indeed the etymology of the word Tuesday, though there's evidence that the word was brought to the north (and to the British Isles) in the medieval period, with some other meaning originally attached.  3) certain varieties of sociopath (particularly narcissists and megalomaniacs) disregard societal rules and norms because they consider themselves above them.  4) in the NC bundle, the Network grew a new Moriarty after Reichenbach.  5) in the original tumblr version of the fic, Karla didn't mention the way that morality-based rules affect the mental states of the employees (and that's the actual reason that they have them; remember that the Savant talked about the fact that morals and ethics, although artificial constructs of sentient beings rather than native phenomena of the timestream, greatly affect the timestream's stability), and i don't think Moriarty would've been satisfied without that further explanation.
> 
> visit [The Fateverse Glossary](http://lex-munro.livejournal.com/64465.html) for terms and concepts, and [The Fateverse Appendix](http://lex-munro.livejournal.com/64565.html) for Nodes, branches, and important people.

**Being the Bad Guy**

 

Proctor 882 is a very practical woman.  Most would say brutally so.

It’s in her ethical profile.  High-functioning sociopath.  No empathy response.  No hesitation response.  No guilt response.

Her subtype is ‘independent scientist.’  Decisive, assertive.  No test-anxiety response.  No Samaritan response.  An inclination to catalog, to observe, to analyze. 

The emotions she feels are dull, limited in spectrum, and far divorced from her actions.  She’s a well-versed liar and a decent actress—she can put on a convincing show, but she doesn’t actually experience things like grief and love.

Instead of feelings, she has facts, problems, more facts, and solutions.

It lets her deal with patients the average person would find morally repugnant.

It’s a Tuesday.  Tiw’s Day.  Tiw.  Tiwaz.  Tyr.  Norse god of victory.

Her Tuesday oh-seven-hundred is sitting in her office.  She doesn’t normally see patients until nine.  She never knows how he gets in; she doesn’t ask and he doesn’t volunteer the information.

“Good morning, Dr. Sofen.  Ask me the question—go on, go ahead.”

She sits across from him and pretends to make a note on her portable.

He grins.  “You know you want to.”

“We both know that’s not true, Jim.  I don’t want or _not_ want to ask it.”

He widens his eyes.  “Ooh, you know how you turn me on when you get ambivalent.”

“Apathetic, actually.  Ambivalence is inclusive, and would imply that I both do _and_ don’t want to ask.  Ambivalence is more in keeping with a less passive profile.”

“And psychobabble, _unf_.”

She raises an eyebrow and makes another imaginary note.  “You’re urging me to ask because you want to answer.  Have you been rehearsing, Jim?”

Slowly, his eyes roll, and he laughs.  “You caught me, Doc!  That’s me pegged, then.  I’m sure there’s a note somewhere in my file that just says NARCISSISM in great big letters.”  He drags his finger through the air as if to trace text.  “See also:  compulsive need for the admiration of others.  Perfectly justifiable, in my case, but them’s the breaks.”

She makes no comment.  In point of fact, his file says MEGALOMANIA in great big letters (with a footnote of _unsuitable for long-term Node custody_ ).  The distinction is that he doesn’t particularly care whether people love him, as long as they acknowledge that they’re powerless by comparison.

“Let’s face facts, Dr. Sofen—you know that _I_ know that you know that I need to be or seem to be superior to everyone around me.”  He shrugs with faked sheepishness.  “It’s a character flaw.”

Now that he’s admitted it aloud, she folds her hands together.  “All right.  How do you feel about your work with the Fidelis Timestream Maintenance Network?”

“I find it challenging and fulfilling, and yet curiously unconfining.”

“Unconfining.  An interesting word.  Not ‘liberating’ or ‘relaxed.’”

He smiles faintly, insincerely.  “Dr. Sofen, we both know I’m not exactly ‘at liberty,’ and the job itself tends to take place at breakneck speeds with the utmost precision and quite a lot of rules, so I would hardly call it ‘relaxed’ in any connotation.”

“Then why ‘unconfining’?  With all those rules, after all.”

“Because they aren’t stupid little rules built up for politeness’ sake.  Outside the island, it’s a _whole ‘nother world_ ,” he says in what is possibly meant to be a comical imitation of what North America calls a ‘southern’ accent.  “Out there, it’s, ‘ _ooh, don’t kill people, that’s not nice_.’  In here it’s, ‘ _don’t kill that one there just yet, we still need him to hold up the timestream’s trousers_.’”

“It bothers you that societal norms are so arbitrary and yet others have the temerity to think they apply to you.”

“I’m the only one allowed to have arbitrary whims,” he says.  “Part of being the ‘bad guy’—it’s a really cool deal, actually.  Y’know, I came to the Dark Side for the biscuits, but the arbitrary whims are my favourite fringe benefit.”

“And acting within this less arbitrary set of rules is fulfilling to you?”

“I don’t get bored as often anymore; that’s close enough.  So the job is…satisfying.  Yeah, I like that one…satisfying.  Things are getting done, I’m less bored, and I’m not outright offended by the rules of the game.”

She actually does make a note about that.  _As suspected, affinity for the term ‘rules’ is an extension of a game metaphor._   “And how would you rate your most recent opponents?”

“Much the same batch as always.  Somewhat clever, rarely brilliant, but quite dogged.  And, on occasion, they do manage to surprise.”  He grins.  “Keeps me on my toes.”

“How would you compare them to your opponents prior to your near-erasure?”

As expected, he finally displays true emotional markers.  They pass in a blur on his face and on the screen of her portable.  Pulse jump.  Pupillary flutter.  Micro-expressions for contempt, regret, amusement, sorrow, excitement.  He leans forward in his chair (usually _her_ chair, but he seems to think there’s some significance to switching their positions, as if that might alter their respective roles) and stares at her.

She stares back.

“Do you know, Dr. Sofen,” he drawls with deceptive sweetness, “that I could kill you in just five seconds?”

She smiles, because death is a small matter.  A little thing.  Death is nothing like erasure, the knowledge that everything you ever were and ever will be stops _here_.  Death is a flicker on the vid-screen of the timestream, easily mended by minor adjustments.

“Or I could kill you over five days,” he goes on, eyes shining.  “I could make it last, draw it out, take you apart bit by bit to see what you really are, behind your eyes, on the _inside_ , where nobody else can see…”

She makes a note.  _Still refuses to discuss Holmes.  Reacts with intimidation displays._   “Still a sore subject, then.  All right, what about the experience of near-erasure itself?  Tunnels, bright lights, angelic voices?”

He grimaces.  “Don’t,” he says.  “Don’t poke fun, that’s just…”

“Rude?”

“Boring.”

She smiles again.  Being boring.  A cardinal sin in the gospel according to James Moriarty.

“‘ _Oh, was there a bright light?_ ’” he says in a mocking falsetto.  “‘ _Everyone always says there’s a bright light._ ’  An endless loop of the same tired questions.”

“Yet there was, in fact, a bright light.”

“Because that’s what happens when brand new eyes open.  It could be fifteen watts and still look like the sun.”  He makes a languid gesture with one hand, almost dismissive.  “Y’know, they tell me my reconstruction was expensive.  Isn’t that curious, when the Network operates essentially as a moneyless society?  What is the definition of ‘expensive’ to a nation that can create whatever they want quite literally out of air?”

“I’m not an economist, Jim.”

He braces his forearms against his knees and grins up at her.  “Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?  Maybe there isn’t any such thing as ‘expensive,’ and it’s their way of imposing _arbitrary_ order onto the people they take from the outside world.”  Again, he shows contempt, this time with a little anger.

“Perhaps it isn’t arbitrary.”

“Then why not just tell me the real reasons, hm?  Why not tell _everyone_?”  He tips his head to the side.  “Ah, but I’m sure you know the answer to that.  That’s your _job_ , isn’t it, Dr. Sofen?  Knowing exactly how people will react to certain words, certain knowledge.  And I know the power of making people _think_ there are costs to things.”

“Expensive,” she enunciates carefully.  “Think about what it means, free of context.  The most general definition.”

“High in cost.  Which can mean…either it requires significant resources to bring about, or it incurs heavy consequences.”  He smiles suddenly.  “Oh, that’s clever.  I see.”

Now he thinks he’s privy to some great secret (it’s not really a secret, but most people don’t stop to think about it).  Narcissism appeased.

“Every single line of Network Law was given to us by the Founder,” she tells him.  “There are scientific reasons behind the bulk of our restrictions, and moral reasons behind the rest.  Nothing so…galling…as the laws of most societies, I assure you—just little rules to make sure Network Law is applied equally to everyone, and to make sure that any corruption introduced to the system can be swiftly and thoroughly weeded out.  Little things.  The way our leaders are chosen and the way our prisoners are treated.  But even those have scientific backing in the medical and psychological fields, and almost anything can be excused with the right provisions.”

He leans back and winks.  “Every legal system has loopholes.  I find the biggest is usually the people doing the enforcing.”

She watches him for a moment.  “Is there anything else you’d like to talk about this week, Jim?”

“You’ve given me quite a lot to think on.  We’ll have a great deal to discuss next time—for now, I’m off to take over someone’s world.”

“Good luck, then.”

He leaves.

She makes another note.

_Current status:  stable, still interested.  Ready for deployment against various designations of Sherlock Holmes._

 

**.End.**


End file.
